True or False?

Coming home from elementary school, Max pushed open the kitchen door. He slammed it behind him and threw his backpack under the coat rack. "Hi, Mom!" He began peeling off his wet coat.

"Hi, how was school today?"

"Our science teacher was teaching us dumb stuff."

"Really? What was it?"

"Something about people many years ago believing that the earth was flat. It sounded so dumb, I didn't listen to all of it."

Mom frowned a bit. "Max, you need to listen to all that your teacher says."

"I know, but who could believe the earth was flat! We all know it's round."

"Well, hundreds of years ago people didn't have the blessing of accumulated knowledge as you do."

"What do you mean?"

"Your education is based on what people have learned over several hundreds of years and passed down to your generation."

"Mmmm." Max nodded thoughtfully.

"So, what do you think, Max?" A tiny smile turned up the corners of Mom's mouth. "Was the earth flat back then because people believed it was?"

"Of course not! It has always been round!" Max shook his head at the foolishness of the question. "Everyone knows that!"

Not Everything Taught is True

"Of course, everyone didn't know that at the time," Mom replied. She put five cookies on a plate, poured a glass of milk, and handed them to Max. "Today people are teaching us that we descended from monkeys. Have you heard that in school, Max?"

"Yep, the kids talk about it, and they say that monkeys descended from a glob of stuff that washed up on the beach and changed itself into something alive."

"Mmmm!" Mom cocked her eyebrow. "So because some people believe and teach that, is it true?"

"I don't think so." Max's words were muffled by the cookies in his mouth.

"It's hard to know what is true sometimes," Mom said. "So it is always best to stick with one authority. Your dad and I have chosen the Bible as our authority because it is God's Word to the world to help people know what is right and what to believe."

Max wiped cookie crumbs from the corner of his mouth and took a drink of milk.

Mom asked, "What does the Bible say about how man came into being?"

The Biblical Truth

"It says that God created Adam out of dust, and all the rest of the people on the earth came from him," Max said. "I learned that in Sunday school."

Mom smiled. "It is best to compare what we are taught with what the Bible teaches," she said. "The things people tell you may not be true; they may be only people's opinions."The Bible is always true

"So, what does the Bible say about the earth being round or flat?" Max said, putting his empty milk glass in the sink.

"It talks about ‘the circle of the earth' (Isaiah 40:22). But it doesn't say if it is round or flat." Mom smiled. "I think that we can rely on hard scientific evidence that it is round."

"Yeah!" Max said. "And I'm going to believe what the Bible says about how man was created. Who wants to come from a monkey, anyway! I'm going to use the Bible when I have difficulty knowing what is true."